Entertainer in twilight zone

December 19, 2012

sachin_gone

Nagpur, December 19: At present, no one would like to be Sachin Tendulkar. Runs once came in torrents, now the flow has been reduced to a trickle. He hasn’t scored a Test hundred since that magnificent 146 at Cape Town against South Africa on January 4, 2011. And at 39, pressure is on him to bring curtains on a career that is now in its 23rd year.

It’s a difficult situation. For well over two decades, Tendulkar has just played cricket, and that sport has been his world. It’s quite tough to cut ties with that world in a single day, especially for a batsman like Tendulkar, who has been on top of his trade for a larger part of that period. Despite a prolonged barren run, there will always be the image of another golden series in his mind, and that’s precisely the dilemma he has to deal with.

And only he can deal with it. Only he can tell with surety whether the current lean patch is the indication of a terminal decline or is it only a phase that he is struggling for runs. For that he needs to take some time away from the hullabaloo around him, and reflect on the last two series – against New Zealand and England. Meanwhile, let’s go through those series as well.


A young set of Kiwi pace bowlers – Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Doug Bracewell – managed to sneak through his defence three times, and it was quite a sad sight to see him losing the battle against players who were just making their entry into this world when the Mumbaikar made his Test debut.

England bowlers had a far greater hold on him. Though he made a fifty in the first innings of the Kolkata Test, that 76 was more like a desperate effort to keep himself afloat. On that day, he took 43 balls to reach double figures on a flat pitch. There was no life in that innings, struggling to put away even rank long-hops.

He never tamed Monty Panesar or James Anderson throughout the series. Tendulkar never could assess Panesar’s length correctly, often leaving him in no-man’s land or playing those nothing shots. Anderson troubled him to no extent with reverse swing, and England captain Alastair Cook was wise enough to employ these two bowlers immediately after Tendulkar’s arrival at the crease.

In that 76, there was just two fours in front of the wicket – a cover drive off Panesar and a punch through mid-on off Steven Finn. Rest of the 11 fours came through edges, paddle sweeps and squirts through the fine leg area, an indication of his hesitancy to go forward on pitches that demanded such a strategy.

That tentativeness has been the common feature of his outings against New Zealand and England. Now, Tendulkar needs to rewind those outings in his mind, and deliberate whether there’s a return for him as he had managed five years ago, scoring runs and hundreds in a bulk.

There’s another home series coming against Australia in February, and India embark on a slew of away tours, beginning with their trip to South Africa in November 2013. Tendulkar should ponder whether he would able to stand the rigours and contribute in those series. Emotions are certain to flood him during those hours because cricket has been such a massive part of his life.

Here, he needs to compartmentalise himself from sentiments, and prudence should rule his decision. There might not be a man-to-man replacement for him, and then you’ll never be able to replace a player like Tendulkar for he is a phenomenon.
But we need to trust the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary, Cheteshwer Pujara, and Virat Kohli to take India forward, and the last two have already shown their readiness to shoulder that responsibility. In sports, only teams ready to take that bold plunge have attained greatness.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni had underlined that point. “If you don’t give youngsters chances, how do you know whether they are good enough or not? You won’t get all of them scoring big hundreds in the first game. You have to back youngsters who you think are very talented, who you think can succeed at the top level,” said the Indian skipper.

In the same breath Dhoni, in tune with the entire team’s desire, hoped Tendulkar would be around for some more time. Yes, Tendulkar’s extraordinary career, in a major part of which he carried the expectations of a billion people without any complaint, deserves a grand farewell. But he needs to chart it well.



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Agencies
March 15,2020

Chennai, Mar 15: Wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni has left the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) training camp following the postponement of the Indian Premier League (IPL) amidst the coronavirus scare.

The former India skipper had joined the CSK's camp earlier this month in order to practice for the upcoming IPL season.

CSK's official handle tweeted a video of Dhoni and captioned the post as: "It has become your home sir!" Keep whistling, as #Thala Dhoni bids a short adieu to #AnbuDen".

Thirty-eight-year-old Dhoni has been currently enjoying some time away from the game. He last played competitive cricket during the 2019 World Cup.

Dhoni had to face criticism for his slow batting approach during India's matches in the tournament.

Earlier this year, Dhoni did not find a place for himself in the BCCI's centrally contracted players list.

BCCI had released the list of central contract list of players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020.

On Friday, BCCI decided to postpone the IPL until April 15 as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus pandemic.

On Saturday, all the IPL franchises met in Mumbai to discuss as to how to go on with the tournament in the future.

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News Network
March 5,2020

Mumbai, Mar 5: Former India spinner Sunil Joshi was on Wednesday named chairman of the national selection panel by the BCCI's Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which also picked ex-pacer Harvinder Singh to the five-member group.

The CAC, comprising Madan Lal, R P Singh and Sulakshana Naik, picked the two selectors with Joshi replacing South Zone representative MSK Prasad.

In an unprecedented decision, the BCCI said the CAC will review the panel's performance after one year and make recommendations accordingly.

"The committee recommended Sunil Joshi for the role of chairman of the senior men's selection committee. The CAC will review the candidates after a one-year period and make the recommendations to the BCCI," read a statement from BCCI Secretary Jay Shah.

Harvinder was chosen from central zone and replaces Gagan Khoda in the panel.

The existing members of the selection panel are Jatain Paranjpe, Devang Gandhi and Sarandeep Singh.

"We have picked the best guys for the job," Lal told news agency.

The CAC had shortlisted five candidates for interviews -- Joshi, Harvinder, Venkatesh Prasad, Rajesh Chauhan and L S Sivaramakrishnan -- from a list of 40 applicants.

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Agencies
April 14,2020

Tokyo, Apr 14: Tokyo organizers said Tuesday they have no B Plan in the event the Olympics need to be postponed again because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Masa Takaya, the spokesman for the Tokyo Olympics, said organizers are proceeding under the assumption the Olympics will open on July 23, 2021. The Paralympics follow on Aug. 24.

Those dates were set last month by the International Olympic Committee and Japanese officials after the coronavirus pandemic made it clear the Olympics could not be held as scheduled this summer.

We are working toward the new goal, Takaya said, speaking in English on a teleconference call with journalists.

We don't have a B Plan. The severity of the pandemic and the death toll has raised questions if it will even be feasible to hold the Olympics in just over 15 months. Several Japanese journalists raised the question on the call.

All I can tell you today is that the new games' dates for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been just set up, Takaya said.

In that respect, Tokyo 2020 and all concerned parties now are doing their very best effort to deliver the games next year." IOC President Thomas Bach was asked about the possibility of a postponement in an interview published in the German newspaper Die Welt on Sunday.

He did not answer the question directly, but said later that Japanese organizers and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated they could not manage a postponement beyond next summer at the lastest.

The Olympics draw 11,000 athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes and large support staffs from 206 national Olympic committees.

There are also questions about frozen travel, rebooking hotels, cramming fans into stadiums and arenas, securing venues, and the massive costs of rescheduling, which is estimated in Japan at 2 billion- 6 billion.

Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto addressed the issue in a news conference on Friday. He is likely to be asked about it again on Thursday when local organizers and the IOC hold a teleconferene with media in Japan.

The other major question is the cost of the delay; how much will it be, and who pays? Bach said in the Sunday interview that the IOC would incur several hundred million dollars in added costs. Under the so-called Host City Agreement, Japan is liable for the vast majority of the expenses.

This is impossible to say for now, Takaya, the spokesman said.

It is not very easy to estimate the exact amount of the games' additional costs, which have been impacted by the postponement."

Tokyo says it's spending 12.6 billion to organize the Olympics. But a Japanese government audit published last year says the costs are twice that much. Of the total spending, 5.6 billion in private money. The rest is from Japanese governments.

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